Erika Burkhardt Sells 597 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) Stock

Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) insider Erika Burkhardt sold 597 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $159.07, for a total value of $94,964.79. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 64 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,180.48. This represents a 90.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link.

Yum! Brands Trading Up 2.1 %

Yum! Brands stock opened at $162.67 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $138.84 and a two-hundred day moving average of $136.38. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $122.13 and a twelve month high of $163.30. The stock has a market capitalization of $45.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.16, a PEG ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.03.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Investors of record on Friday, February 21st were given a $0.71 dividend. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.75%. This is a positive change from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 21st. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 54.41%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Yum! Brands

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of YUM. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Yum! Brands by 17.9% during the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 2,323 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $325,000 after purchasing an additional 353 shares in the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. increased its position in Yum! Brands by 30.8% during the 3rd quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 38,388 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $5,363,000 after purchasing an additional 9,046 shares during the period. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 7.6% during the 3rd quarter. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC now owns 2,199 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $307,000 after buying an additional 156 shares in the last quarter. Radnor Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $479,000. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 3.1% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 352,400 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $49,234,000 after buying an additional 10,526 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

YUM has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Oppenheimer raised their price target on Yum! Brands from $154.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. TD Securities raised their price target on Yum! Brands from $151.00 to $164.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on Yum! Brands from $140.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Citigroup restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $141.00 price target (down from $153.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Fourteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $150.42.

About Yum! Brands

Yum! Brands, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, develops, operates, and franchises quick service restaurants worldwide. The company operates through the KFC Division, the Taco Bell Division, the Pizza Hut Division, and the Habit Burger Grill Division segments. It also operates restaurants under the KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and The Habit Burger Grill brands, which specialize in chicken, pizza, made-to-order chargrilled burgers, sandwiches, Mexican-style food categories, and other food products.